Catholic approaches to the ministry of women: An abyss of symbolism

In order to address the question of ministries that are accessible or not to women in the Catholic Church, I have chosen three points of departure: historical invisibility, symbolic invisibility, and canonical invisibility. I will not deal directly with ordained ministries. My focus will be on other ministries, both instituted and not. There are surprising impasses, resulting in an inability to enter into new practices (which will be my third and fourth points here today). I think that this is largely due to an imagination that is inherited from the past (point 1) and which is fed by the liturgy to this day (point 2). The issue is therefore perhaps primarily symbolic, and involves shaking up deeply rooted cultural and religious imaginations and representations.